UPDATE 1-Lockheed meets 2014 target for 36 F-35 deliveries-Pentagon

WASHINGTON Dec 22 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp
met its target of delivering 36 F-35 fighter jets to the U.S.
government in 2014, paving the way for the firm to collect most
of the associated performance fees, a spokesman for the
Pentagon's F-35 program office said Monday.

The U.S. government on Monday accepted the last of the 36
jets due to be delivered by Lockheed this year, said Joe
DellaVedova, spokesman for the F-35 program office.

The company accelerated deliveries in the final months of
the year to meet the target despite weeks of delays after flight
groundings were imposed following engine failure on an Air Force
jet in June.

DellaVedova said Lockheed and the other companies involved in
the program had delivered 109 operational aircraft to the United
States and partner nations since the program's inception in
2001.

Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan said building and
delivering the jets to the U.S. government was a global
undertaking that involved thousands of workers and 300,000
individual parts from 45 U.S. states and 10 other countries.

The jet delivered to the U.S. government on Monday was the
first F-35 carrier-variant jet built for the U.S. Marine Corps,
which plans to buy a total of 80 such jets in coming years.

The 2015 F-35 deliveries included 23 conventional takeoff
and landing jets for the U.S. Air Force, the first two jets for
the Royal Australian Air Force, four Marine Corps short takeoff
and landing jets, and seven carrier-variant jets, including the
Marine Corps' first F-35 C-model jet.

Lorraine Martin, Lockheed's F-35 program manager, said 2014
marked the most F-35 deliveries in a single year and showed the
program's "growing stability and ability to ramp up production."

Lockheed is building three variants of the jet for the U.S.
military. Eight other countries that helped fund its development
are Canada, Britain, Australia, Italy, Turkey, Norway, the
Netherlands and Denmark. Israel, South Korea and Japan have also
placed orders for the new radar-evading jets.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and
Diane Craft)